Joss Whedon: Feminist? Monster?
The creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer put the final nail in coffin of his legacy of feminist heroines and behind the scenes abuse
I wonder which one it was. Eliza Dushku? Mercedes McNab, who played Harmony? Perhaps Alyson Hannigan, who played Willow. Which one did Joss Whedon screw, when they were young and impressionable and trying to make a name for themselves on his show, and he was happy to absorb their adoration into his own rising star?
Which beloved actress did Joss Whedon sleep with, while I was watching his shows and admiring his feminist principles?
I thought I knew what Joss Whedon stood for. Didn’t we all? I thought I was exactly who Joss Whedon was writing for. When I discovered Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I was a lonely high school girl desperate for something to believe in. I was a fifteen-year-old with a body considered too muscular to be attractive and a sexuality considered too assertive to be appealing. I was drowning in my own emotions and seething through every day of school. My life was filled with demons I could not name.
Joss gave me the tools to name them. He turned vampires into the ultimate symbol of rape culture and werewolves into the classic representation of the ‘nice guy’ trope. He made the…
